After losing sons to crime, mom pleads for the living

It has been three years since her two sons were killed by rival gangsters in April 2018, but Janice Solomon, a resident of the battle-torn community of Salt Spring in St James, still weeps for her boys as if it were yesterday.

While admitting that her sons were no angels, she said their deaths still hurt, and she is appealing to parents in inner-city communities to do more to protect their children from being recruited into gangs.

“I would like the crime and violence to stop. It is hard when you do not have options,” said the 53-year-old domestic assistant, who also does odd jobs to make ends meet.

“I have been through a whole heap of situations, and it’s by the help of family and the grace of God why I am still standing.”

Her son, Damaine Samuels, a key figure in the notorious Unknown Gang, which has been embroiled in a deadly feud with the G-City Gang, was killed in St Mary by rivals. He was 30 years old.

At the time of his death, Damaine was before the courts on charges of murder, illegal possession of firearm, and shooting with intent, and was ordered to relocate from Salt Spring as a condition of his bail.

Four days later, her younger son, Ron Samuels, who was affiliated with the Wrong Turn, Unknown, and Supermarket gangs, was killed in Costa Rica, where police said he fled to avoid their dragnet.

Ron, who was 27 when he died, had been listed among St James’ most wanted in 2015 for murder.

“I don’t know if they killed anybody. The whole of them used to be friends, and I don’t know what they did at night,” Solomon told The Gleaner.

“I have forgiven the persons responsible for their deaths. It’s very painful, but I can’t continue hating people all the days of my life, and there are always consequences for a certain life.”

However, Heroy Clarke, the member of parliament for St James Central, has mooted a plan, starting with the students of Salt Spring Primary and Infant School, that he hopes will steer at-risk children from a life of crime. He believes that education and skills training are the cure.

SAVE THE BOY INITIATIVE

An initiative called Save the Boy has been introduced for boys nine years and older – the stage when many children start to drift away from school, the member of parliament said.

The initiative is being undertaken in collaboration with corporate sponsors and seeks to shepherd each boy into secondary school, with additional tutoring support for mathematics and English.

Clarke’s assessment of the failings bedevilling the education sector is damning.

“So what we have had is like a nursery for misdemeanors and other negative things, and this must now come to an end,” he told The Gleaner.

Clarke also expressed concern that a number of residents have been sending their children to schools outside of the community, a situation that he hopes to change with the help of the Jamaica Social Investment Fund (JSIF).

“We find that because of the stigma that is attached to the community, parents go at lengths to send their children out of the community to different institutions. We want to bring back Salt Spring to a point that residents will feel comfortable to have their kids going to their schools within the community, which will make it a little bit cheaper for the students and less hassle for the parents,” the MP said.

For Norma Brydson, who was appointed principal of Salt Spring Primary and Infant in 2018, the signs are encouraging.

Brydson said that the reputation of Salt Spring from newscasts and reports made her scared initially, but she disclosed that she has been “pleasantly surprised”.

“My students are quite different from the previous school that I came from. They are not violent, and I thought they would be,” she said.

“... I was looking to see every other person walking with a gun, but I have not experienced the impact of gang-related wars.”

editorial@gleanerjm.com